mod podge shoes.

When I shop for clothes, I generally steer away from animal prints.
Maybe I feel it's too wild for my taste and feel I can't pull it off, or that it would take more work to coordinate with them. Let's just say that I like dressing to be simple with minimum work required... ;)

Well, lately I've been loving the look of leopard print flats, and decided to get the look with an old pair of shoes I owned.

These shoes were crusty from toes...

to heels.

They were one of those pairs of shoes that are so unbelievably comfy from constant wear and it would just pain you to throw them away (...or is that a serious sign of being a hoarder?)

I used Outdoor Mod Podge to ensure there would be more durability and a bit of water-resistance, foam brushes, and a shirt I found at Goodwill for $5. I have been looking around for a leopard print for awhile, and this XL shirt had just the print I wanted.
I've used Mod Podge before on a previous project and loved the way it turned out!

I actually used two methods to try mod podging these shoes. I'll share the first (that I ended up re-doing because I didn't like the final look). I first cut out a basic square of fabric that would cover each shoe.

With scissors, I cut an 'I' shape over the shoe's opening.

Then, I started mod podging my shoes, smoothing down the fabric, and snipping the material to make it easier to wrap around rounded edges.

and I snipped away any excess fabric.

Lastly, I put two layers of mod podge over the shoes and left them over night to harden and dry. In the morning, the material was stiffer and in some areas the material folded and looked chunky (this method might work with a thinner material), but I wasn't satisfied with how the mod podge darkened the material and made it look like someone had barfed on it.

end result? grossness.

So I ripped off the material and started over.

This time, I used the previous stiff material as a pattern outline to cut sections of material, and I glued them on section by section (this worked much better than one large piece).

I used a LOT of mod podge to adhere the fabric and made sure there were no folds. And I did NOT mod podge over the material.

left: with mod podge over fabric - right: mod podge under fabric

In the end, the difference in colour was pretty significant and I was really happy with how not-chunky-dunk they were (compared to the first time around)!

The end result: no scary sharp edges, but just a comfy leopard print shoe for around $5!

(my paste-y winter feet are happy)

Not a bad deal, considering this lovely leopard print shoe from j.crew is selling for a mere $290!

Here's a before and after:

before.

after.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!